To Laura and anyone else who has never seen this skit

Laura has had to suffer through my interpretation of this skit at least 15 times at 5:30 in the morning, while running AND never finds it funny.

Now you can see the real skit.

Thanks for sending it out Erika.  This way we can all do it together on Thursday!

The Cat Man

This is our friend Erik.

We have known him for a VERY long time.

He was over for dinner last week and while we were tipping back some wine and chatting, up pops Arthur to sit right next to him, just like this.

Arthur has no idea how close he is to freedom with this man.  If Erik had his druthers, he would steal our cats from us.

Even before we got Lucy, Erik never thought our cat ownership skills were ever really up to snuff and I know he has secret designs on how he is going to take them far away from their chaotic kitty cat hell hole or as I like to call it, our lovely home.

But just so you know Cat Man, you aren’t getting’em, know matter how much they love you up.

The weather will catch up soon

Happy first day of spring!

Soon the buds will be popping, warm air will be whirling and winter will be a distant memory.

Dogs are funny

There are a bunch of dogs in my neighborhood.  I actually knew this fact before I was a dog owner.  However, now I not only know the dogs in the neighborhood, I know their owners too.

You see, we meet everyday at the same time and the same place.  The only difference between me and them, I’m the one with kids.  Kids who come with me all through the winter to the park, just so the dog can play.  When they complain about going to the park, I simply tell them that this is what owning a dog is all about and please remember…you are the ones who wanted this cute little dog so badly.

At said park, we get to see all sorts of dog behavior that I know nothing about.  A couple of our doggy friends are stick chewers.  Lucy was not a stick chewer before she met these characters.  But now that she has watched her buddies chewing the living tar out of sticks and enjoying it so much, she clearly decided that that was something dogs do.  So now, Lucy is a stick chewer.  She is also a stick pooper.

Today I witnessed, along with PJ and the rest of the kids at the bus stop, a poop made entirely out of stick shards.  As we watched on, you could see it in the little kids faces as Lucy was trying hard to get this thing out;  first disgust, then fright, a little bit of shrieking ran through the air from PJ and then when she finally birthed it out, utter amazement.

Yes, I should have taken a picture.

Ok, apon review, naw.

Me and my VERY part time job

I teach swimming lessons on a very part time basis, like 1 to 3 half-hour classes a week depending on the session.  So really, it does not take up much of my time and the added bonus is a free membership that feeds my beloved addiction.

All that said, when a kid goes down sick, it just so happens to be during the smallest increment of time that I am suppose to be somewhere earning a minuscule amount of money.  But still, it’s a commitment.  A commitment I take seriously and want to find a solution to the problem that does not impact anyone else negatively (like getting sick).

We have been battle coughs for two weeks now (Adam, CT, PJ and KP).   Yesterday KP spiked a temp.  After a day of movies and Tylenol I was hoping he would wake up with no fever and he could go to school and I could go teach lessons.

Instead, he slept in until 8:30, woke up glassy eyed, still coughing and still with fever.

So what to do with the job?  The following is the email I sent to my boss:

Hey Y,
I have a sick kid who can’t go to school today (cough and temp).  That leaves me with canceling classes today, you or some one else doing them for me or me bringing him into the gym daycare and infecting kids.  Thoughts?

M

She called 5 minutes later telling me should would call everyone and cancel them.  Hmmm, that was easy.  I clearly spent too much time worrying about how I was going to fix that problem.

Just one week ago

Last weekend’s long run:  15.5 miles of joy, happiness, excitment and disbelief that I was back at the long runs and feeling this good.

This weekend’s long run:  16.72 miles of hell, back pain, ankle pain, sluggishness, negativity, and wanting to walk at only 5 miles into the run.

Oh the sweet ups and downs of training.

Quote of the day

I walked into the house from taking the dog for a walk and KP comes running towards me yelling, “Moooommmm, I had to take a shower…I PEED ON MY FACE!”

I’m so glad I wasn’t here for that.

Still Funny

This dramatic episode was brought to you by the Chinese Immersion girls.

Thanks for reliving it Whit.

I can’t stop looking

Thanks to T-odd I now find myself checking out the amazing deals at Steep and Cheap way too often.

Here’s how it works:

• Steep and Cheap sells one screamin’ deal at a time until it’s gone.
• The deals are fat, so they sell out fast.
• You have to act fast or you’ll miss it, but don’t stress—as soon as one deal sells out, we kick off another.
• It’s back-to-back deals all day long.

For those of you who love a deal, enjoy!

Ready…Set…GOOOOOOOOO!

Today starts my first day of triathlon training for the 2009 season.  Enough of the slacking off, drinking too much on Tuesday nights for no reason and eating whole boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

So I have decided to make a few changes.  I’ve increased my training a level this year to level 2.  (level 1-for those short on time or newbies, level 2-those who think they can be at least a little bit competitive in their age group, level 3-are people who have no life outside of working, working out and then obsessing about their races, times, heart rates, power output and wattage)  We will see where it gets me, if anywhere.

The other change to this year’s training is that our marathon is a whole month earlier.  That may or may not be a good thing.  We are also trying to go for a specific time, which is a little bit different than in my past attempts at running/enjoying marathons.  I pretty much know that this isn’t going to be one of those fun runs.

All that said, no more excusses to stop after thre miles for coffee or just blow off the swim.  It is written down and when it is written down on my to do list, it gets crossed off…or else.

This first week looks like this (this includes mileage for marathon training too):

• Monday:  Off  (I love starting this way)
• Tuesday:  run: 8-10 miles marathon pace, swim: 6×25 yard sprints (plus warm-up, cool down, drills)
• Wednesday:  bike:  8×30 second sprints
• Thursday:  swim: distance to be determined, run:6-8 miles and hills
• Friday:  bike: 50 minutes
• Saturday:  swim: 800 yards, run:  14-16 miles
• Sunday:  brick:  35 min. bike and 10 min. run

Off to the races.